Interview: Mark Walsh, Pixarian and Partysaurus Rex Director

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Today, I had the opportunity to interview Pixar's Mark Walsh, the director of the latest Toy Story Toon, Partysaurus Rex! Partysaurus Rex is showing now in America, alongside Finding Nemo 3D - although they don't arrive here until March (unless you can attend the VIEW Conference that is). However, I was able to watch the short online, via a secure link, just prior to our interview, and it's great (I'll post a quick review later)! I've loved all of the Toy Story Toons, but this is definitely the most original one yet.

Thanks of the highest magnitude, again, should also go to Pixar's PR king, Chris Wiggum, for setting the interview up!

Mark is a lovely, down-to-Earth guy, who went out of his way to ask me about my own life; and his enthusiasm and zeal for the characters and the short was abundant. In our conversation, visible after the jump break, Mark and I discuss his inspirations for the short, basing it around Rex, his other work for Pixar, working with Pixar Canada, Finding Nemo 3D, the future and more!

A113Animation: Right,first of all, you’ve just finished directing the third Toy Story Toon: PartysaurusRex which is, as of today, in America, showing in front of Finding Nemo 3D! How’s that been?

Mark Walsh: Oh, it feels amazing.It’s been two years making the movie, and I’m now finally getting to watchaudiences watch the movie and see their reactions, and enjoy the entertainmentthey get out of it.
A113: Right, so:great short, Chris [Wiggum] sent me the link earlier, and I got to watch it,it’s brilliant – very, very, very funny! It’s… it’s a very different Toy Story film, isn’t it? It’sessentially a Toy Story rave.
MW: Yeah. Yeah, Rex is such a sweet– he’s my favourite character from the ToyStory movies – and he’s such a sweet character. I mean, I started workingat Pixar because of Toy Story 1; Iworked on Toy Story 2 and 3. I didn’t set out to do something thatdrastically different, I just wanted to put Rex in a fun situation; becausehe’s so meek, I imagined that he would want to, maybe, try to break out ofthat. And putting him in a situation like, where if you moved to a new town, orgo to a new school, or maybe have a new chance to make a first impression, hemight try to put on a persona that was what he wanted himself to be, ratherthan who he was; I thought that could be entertaining. And, to make thatentertaining, the even more outside of his comfort zone we put him, the funnierit got. And it was John Lasseter that suggested we get, this electronic-dancemusic artist, BT, to do the music, he had worked with him before on the Cars short [Tokyo Mater]. And BT is just, you know, he goes and he plays forhundreds and thousands of kids just like this really thumping dance music. Andas soon as we started with that, we thought ‘oh wow, well we have to have theimagery match the music’, and before we knew it we were creating a completerave. So, it’s not what we set out to do, but I think, because it’s such a leftturn for the Toy Story world, I thinkthat’s what makes it surprising fun.

A113: Yeah,because, I think it does take a lot of people by surprise, and that adds to,like you say, the whole humour of it. And obviously the music, by BT, is great,but, just juxtaposed against the fact that this is Toy Story, and you’ve got all these bright colours and all thispartying, in a bath, it’s…MW: Yeah, it’s probably not adirection we’ll take in future shorts for ToyStory, that crazy Toy Story world.But that’s the fun thing about these shorts, is that they are a place to, like,experiment a little bit, and push the world and explore the characters a bitmore. And we all, we love the characters here – Toy Story is like our Mickey Mouse here at Pixar – you know, we allreally want to see more of these characters, and explore, and we think theseshorts are a great way to do that. So… yeah, it’s a weird one!
[Both laugh]
MW: But hopefullyit’s in a way that expands the universe a little bit. Because, you pick up atoy and you look at it, it’s just a toy, but you think, you know, what wouldhappen when I walk away and close the door, when the thing comes to life? Whatis life like for this guy? The world of ToyStory becomes endless when you think about it like that, there’s so manythings lying around.
…
MW: I started inanimation working at a special effects company back before there werecomputers, and everything was models and stuff. I was 15, and I was justgetting coffee and making Xeroxes for people, you know, at this company called DreamQuestimages. And from there on, I went back to school and started working my waythrough school, and – well, if you know what you’re interested in, why wastetime?
A113: Yeah,exactly!
MW: You like journalism, and youlike film and you like all that stuff. Yeah, follow it, that’s great!
A recording session with the voice of Woody, Tom Hanks, and (L-R) Mark Walsh, Short Fry director Angus MacLane and Toy Story 3 supervising animator Bobby Podesta.
A113: Thank youvery much! And, yeah, you were saying it’s a very different short, but it’sbeen getting a great reception as well; like Hawaiian Vacation and SmallFry also got. But some people are saying this is the best Toy Story Toon yet, and I think it’sbecause this is so much its own thing, whereas Hawaiian Vacation and SmallFry, maybe just – they were both great, but this is, like you say,experimenting with what’s possible with the characters and with the format.
MW: Yeah, I think there’re a lot ofthings colliding here, some that are intentional, and some that areunintentional. The music seems to be really hitting with people, that it seemslike an audience, an age group, that hasn’t been reached out to yet, with the Toy Story world. I mean, when we wererecording voices for Partysaurus, wehad a young man that came in and he read for the little froggy sponge thatcovers drains, his name is Andy Fisher-Price (his real last name isFisher-Price!) and Andy said ‘oh, it’s so great to work for Pixar again.’ Isaid, ‘oh, what have you done for us before?’ And he said ‘oh, I was one of thekids in Finding Nemo.’ And Irealised, that was like, ten years ago, practically, nine years ago!
A113: I remember,I was watching the John Carter BluRay the other week, with the commentary, and Andrew Stanton said the guy, Iforget his name, who plays Edgar Rice Burroughs in that; he voiced one of thekids in Finding Nemo as well. But hedidn’t realise that until he cast him in JohnCarter.
MW: Oh yeah, from – I think that’sthe little guy – from the Spy Kidsmovies, yeah. So it’s weird that there’s like, I think for Toy Story, one thing we saw was that, with Toy Story 3, there was a big response from young people in college,because they had grown up with the ToyStory movies. For us it just seems like it was a year ago. But, outside ofPixar, yeah, I realise ‘wow, yeah, that was about a decade or more’. So Ithink, sort of what Partysaurus Rexseems to be hitting on, I think, is that he’s doing what his audience is doing,it’s like you’re all grown up, you’re at college, but your teddy bear is goingto go with you out to party. I think it’s a kind of a wacky idea, it embracesyoung adulthood, and it embraces your childhood at the same time. I think,also, something that’s really important to me in the stuff that I make ishaving emotion, and I think that one thing I feel really good about in Partysaurus – the feedback I’ve gottenwas good – is that you feel bad for Rex, and really understand that predicamentof wanting to impress people, even though it’s not really who you are, puttingon that show, having that… it never works. It might work for a little while,but it always backfires on you; the real you is who you are, we can try toexpand ourselves a little bit, but, we all know what it’s like to push beyondthat little bit and try to seem cooler than we are. And I think that’s theidentifiable part of the whole thing, so beyond the music and the colours, Ithink that’s something that people really get.

A113: Mm, I thinkit was nice – after the very melancholy, definitely sad, end of Toy Story 3 – it’s nice to show that thetoys, it’s not the end for them, they can still have fun without Andy. It’s anice, happy ending for them.
MW: But it’s bittersweet, yeah. Wellthe fun thing about this new kid, Bonnie, the character that they’ve been leftwith – Andy was their owner, but now he’s given the toys away to Bonnie – whosea young kid, she’s in preschool, the way that John Lasseter and Lee Unkrich haddesigned Bonnie, in Toy Story 3, isthat she’s a very creative child, she’s a very imaginative child. So that givesus a lot of fun, a lot of things to play with, like, I originally wanted toshow Bonnie having a great time in the bath, to introduce the bathtub toys, andthen we realised, well, maybe she’ll be playing Godzilla, or something, withRex. And we originally had storyboarded that, with, you know, shooting it coveredin suds, playing with her toys in the bath, and we realised, Bonnie’s such acreative kid, why don’t we look at this from her point of view, that’s wherethat sequence came in, were Rex was a real Godzilla, and we had a real rubberducky, and a real boat with Captain Smog, all that kind of stuff came from herimagination. It’s a really… having a different order creates kind of adifferent circumstance for the toys to play in, filmically, they can play witha lot of different things, to make it more exciting. So I feel like the worldis opening up in a lot of new ways; we still have the same characters, all ofthe original actors from the Toy Storymovies are in Partysaurus Rex, whichwe’re really lucky to have, so it’s still grounded in Toy Story, but I feel like the world is expanding in a reallyinteresting way now.
A113: Yeah,definitely! And I look forward definitely to the TV specials coming up, and forthe next Toy Story Toons.
MW: Well, from your lips to God’sears, let’s hope that we see more. We’re working on some fun things for thefuture, so we’ll see how it goes. I hope I can talk to you again aboutsomething new that we’re making.
A113: I wouldabsolutely love that! As you said, you worked on Toy Story 2, and Toy Story 3, and given that, and knowing howimportant the franchise is to Pixar, and to the audience, did you feel a lot ofpressure?
MW: Erm, yes and no. I mean, theseare all characters that we all love here, I mean they really are like ourfamily, like children, there’s a lot of respect here within the studio, from meand from everyone else working on it, so I feel like there’s nothing – you know,Pixar is set up in such a way that John Lasseter works with directors, likemyself, and will try to pull the best out of the film, but also the best out ofthem. John really helped me find what was personal about Partysaurus Rex; he helped me find what was entertaining about Partysaurus Rex, and helped me put moreof myself in the movie. It’s a really amazing gift that he has, and, becausethere’s so many great directors here, that take a look at what we do: AndrewStanton and John Lasseter and Lee Unkrich, and, you know, there are so manyguards against doing something dumb.
[Both laugh]
MW: And nobodywill let anything dumb ever happen with the ToyStory characters, because, again, we love them so much. And so, I feel likeit’s a great place, for me the shorts are a great place, to try new things,explore the characters, but I feel safe that – even if I’ve pushed it too far –that the guardians of the franchise, they’re the guardians of our quality barhere at Pixar, are also looking at it, and if I overstep, they’ll tell me, andif they have a great idea to push it, they’ll tell me as well. So I feel like,yeah, there’s pressure to make something that’s good, with all the Pixar stuff,but I didn’t feel any extra pressure because it was Toy Story, we have a pretty high pressure bar for everything thatwe do here. [laughs] Everyone’salways worried that their film will be the one that everyone hates.
[Both laugh]

A113: I don’tthink there’s any chance of that anytime soon.
MW: Well let’s hope not! I mean,people associate quality with the Pixar name, and you want to live up to that. Ittook two years to make this six and a half minutes, and there’s a lot of blood,sweat and tears in that two years, on my part, on our editor, and our team inCanada – we worked with Pixar Canada, that’s our sister studio, two hour’sflight north in Canada. You know, they have as much – that is an interestingcompany too, because most everybody there is under 35, there are only 70 peopleat that studio, which is smaller than Emeryville’s whole animation department,their entire studio is smaller than our animation department. They are verymuch like Pixar was in the mid-1990s when we made Toy Story and A Bug’s Life,and they’ve got a lot of really greatenergy up there, because so many of them are young I think they really dug intoPartysaurus, because it’s aimed at ayounger crowd, as far as, when I say younger, I mean like a young adult crowd,since most everybody up there is a young adult, I think they really went nutsover it, and you can see it in the movie.
A113: Mm. So, didyou envision and create the story at the Emeryville campus then? Then was theanimation done at Pixar Canada?
MW: Yeah, the story development andthe artwork design was all done here at Emeryville. Our editor was Axel Geddes,who’s worked on… oh, he’s been here as long as I’ve been here, since Bug’s Life. Bob Pauley, who was the artdirector on A Bug’s Life, and on Monsters, Inc., and on Toy Story 3, he was our art director. It’sbeen neat for me, because, coming up through the ranks here at Pixar, a lot ofthe people that I got to work with on Partysaurus,as partners, were gods to me, when I was just animating, you know, people likeBob Pauley, people I just idolised, and to be lucky enough to have them collaboratingwith me on this project was really cool for me. It’s kind of like meeting yourheroes, and it was a really great experience. A lot of the times when you meetyour heroes it’s disappointing, not, though, with the people here. It is reallyamazing, the whole way up to the very top, how much everyone really cares aboutthe characters and the quality here. I know people say that a lot, but it is –having been through it now, as a director – it is absolutely true, never oncedid I have anybody, ever, at the studio, want to sell out any kind of line, orany kind of gag, or any of our characters, there is such a respect here forthem, for the work.
A113: And that’s alwaysa great, refreshing thing to see. And have you, after working on the Toy Story Toon, have you any desire tomaybe direct another Toy Story Toon?
MW: Like I say, I hope so. We’ve gotthings that we’re developing, we’ll see what happens, I can’t say more thanthat. But if they enjoyed Partysaurus,then, you know, write a letter.
[Both laugh]
MW: No, I’m just,right now, I’m focused on – we are tossing around some new things, fordifferent ideas – right now our focus is on, for me, is on Partysaurus, I want to see, I want to hear, how people react to themovie. It’s been such a solitary experience without a real audience, and for menow, when they play the movie, I guess I don’t watch the film as I like towatch people watching it, because I’ve been without audience for so long, it’sreally gratifying to see people laugh in the right places, or they laugh atplaces I didn’t expect, or reverse, they don’t laugh at places I thought theywould, it happens a couple of places, it’s such a learning experience. So rightnow I’m just really excited about getting the word out, I want people to go seethe movie with Finding Nemo again, it’sa beautiful film, I think it’s probably one of our very best, our most emotional,it holds up really beautifully. I worked on it for three, four years, as adirecting animator, and I hadn’t seen it until recently, I went to see the premierein Los Angeles, and I was blown away, I forgot about all the work that we hadput into it, I forgot about how emotional it was, I was getting teary, justlike I had been nine years ago. It was amazing to me. And I worked on it! So,if there’s anyone who should be jaded by it, it’s me.

A113: Yeah,because, especially given that you worked on Nemo, but also knowing how hugeit is, it must have been a huge honour to have Partysaurus Rex paired with Nemo3D.
MW: Yeah, I mean, Andrew Stanton,who’s the director of Finding Nemo,he is just an idol of mine. I think that he is one of the gutsiest directors inanimation today, and when you see FindingNemo, I think, it sinks in how many reallygutsy choices he makes filmically, and story-wise, and emotionally in Finding Nemo. And working on Nemo was, probably, up until Partysaurus Rex, was my favouriteprofessional experience, I loved the movie, I loved the character of Dory, shewas the character I specialised in, I love that character, I love the voice, Ilove Ellen DeGeneres, I really lovedworking on that movie. So yeah, when we started working on Partysaurus, we didn’t where it would it would be, we didn’t knowif it was just going to be for television or what, and when the opportunity forFinding Nemo came up, John Lasseterreally pushed that this would be a great partner for Finding Nemo, and I have been over the moon ever since. There was alot of extra work at Pixar Canada, to meet the deadline. And I think with thewater, in both films, it’s nice to see a ToyStory film against something FindingNemo, its classic Pixar. And I think technologically, Partysaurus looks really pretty, and in 3D it looks really killer,especially if you see it in a theatre with the 7.1 surround sound mix, we’veactually mixed the music by BT to be swirling around you at times like atornado, it’s like you’re in the club. And it’s a really great theatricalexperience to see them both together.
A113: Andfinally, I’ll just ask one quick question, the one I ask everyone: what’s yourfavourite animated film?
MW: My favourite animated film ofall time?
A113: Yeah.
MW: Beauty and the Beast. Followed by Pinocchio. But, yes, Beautyand the Beast, very emotional.